


Filling My Life

by girlmarvel



Category: The Hobbit (Jackson Movies), The Hobbit - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, M/M, Sibling Incest, Summer Fandom Raffle Exchange, Unrelated Fíli and Kíli
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-12
Updated: 2015-09-28
Packaged: 2018-04-20 11:37:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 5,341
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4785944
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/girlmarvel/pseuds/girlmarvel
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Prompt fills from the Summer Fandom Raffle Exchange.  A little bit of everything but always Fili and Kili!  Each chapter is a one-shot.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Coffee Like Air

**Author's Note:**

> This is for prompt 71. I just moved in and don't have any coffee, I come over to borrow some from you.  
> Modern Au, not related.

The sudden knocking on his front door startled Kili right as he was pouring his traditional and very necessary morning coffee, causing him to land more coffee on the counter than in his mug. Quickly tossing a dish towel over the spill, Kili walked through his kitchen to the front door, expecting the knocker to be one of his neighbors with a misdirected package for him.

Opening the door, Kili was surprised to find a blond man of about his own age, who Kili quickly noted was not holding any mail for him but was incredibly attractive.

“Good morning!” Kili grinned at the man. He may not have been expecting it but Kili was certainly not going to turn down the universe’s early morning delivery of a gorgeous blond man.

“Morning!” The blond smiled back at him. “This might seem a bit weird but I just moved in a few days ago and I’m not sure where my coffee maker is located in the hot mess of boxes all over my flat and well, I could smell it in the hallway.”

“Smell what?”

“Your coffee?” The blond held up the thermos he was carrying and gave it a little shake. “I’m sorry, I should have started this conversation like a normal person. Hi, my name is Fili. I moved into the flat down the hall and I am in desperate need of caffeine. Perhaps you’d help a new neighbor out?”

“Oh yeah, of course! Come on in,” Kili ushered Fili into his flat. “I was just about to have a cup too. My name’s Kili by the way!”

Fili quirked his eyebrow at him. “I’m not even going to comment on the weirdness of that.”

“Not before you’ve gotten your coffee at least,” Kili joked.

Once in the kitchen, Kili pulled out the coffee pot “For here or to go?” he asked.

“To go, unfortunately,” Fili replied. “I’m on my way to work. I realize it’s a little rude to ask for coffee and then run but seriously thank you so much!”

“It’s really no problem at all and it’s always nice to meet my neighbors,” Kili poured the coffee first into Fili’s thermos and then into his own mug. He handed the thermos back to Fili, making sure to let their fingers brush as he passed it over.

“You’re a life saver. I wasn’t going to make it through the day without coffee and I didn’t have time to run to a Starbucks,” reaching into his pockets, Fili added, “Can I give you a couple dollars for the trouble?”

“Oh no money, thanks. Maybe you can just have an actual cup of coffee with me next time.”

Fili looked up with wide eyes over the rim of his thermos as he was about to take a sip, “What?” he sputtered.

“You don’t have to pay me for the coffee. Just drink a cup with me here the next time you’re in need of a fix. Or we could go to an actual cafe. That’ll be the price of your to-go cup,” Kili grinned over his own mug. “What do you say?”

“Sounds fair to me,” Fili smiled back at him.


	2. Snoring and Sneaking

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This is a fill for prompt 2. I didn't know you snored until a half and hour ago but I'm staring at the ceiling fighting the urge to kick you.   
> Modern Universe, unrelated.

Fili was not the sort of person who regularly went home with people he had just met, but there was something special about Kili. Or at least something special about the way Kili’s arm had felt around his waist and how Kili’s whispered promises had started a low burn in his gut. If Fili was being honest with himself, he’d have to admit that he knew he was going to go home with Kili from the moment the dark-haired man had smiled at him across the bar.

And if he was being honest he’d also have to admit that at this exact moment he wanted nothing more than to smother Kili with a pillow if it would get the man to stop snoring.

Fili considers getting up and leaving. Kili is obviously a heavy sleeper given the amount of noise his snoring is generating, so Fili thinks he can gather up his clothes quietly and slip out. But the thing is, Fili doesn’t want to leave. Leaving would completely take away the glimmer of hope he had for a slow, sleepy morning repeat of their previous activities. Not to mention his ability to ask Kili for his number.

Not that he wants Kili’s number though. He’d never get any sleep with the guy around.

Fili lies on his back, head turned to take in Kili’s profile next to him while he weighs his options. When Kili makes a particularly loud wheezing noise, Fili decides he’s better off making a run for it before Kili’s volume goes up another level. He definitely doesn’t want to be responsible for committing a homicide in his sleep-deprived state.

Fili lifts the blankets and slips out of bed as quietly as he can, eyes on Kili to watch for any signs of waking. When Kili’s snoring remains the same, Fili walks to the end of the bed where his pants are and picks them up.

He makes his way over to the desk by the wall, where he’s pretty sure Kili enthusiastically threw his t-shirt after he had stripped it off Fili. Bending down, he runs his hand over the floor under the desk feeling for it. Locating it he stands up and in doing so knocks into the chair with his knee.

So much for a clean getaway he thinks. He turns back to the bed where Kili is propping himself up on one elbow and blinking the sleep from his eyes. After a moment Kili’s eyes focus on Fili standing by the desk and Fili can almost see the frown building on Kili’s face in the dimness of the room.

“You’re leaving me?”

“I - You..uh.” Fili clutches his clothes to his chest like they can shield him from the sleepy disappointment apparent in Kili’s voice.

Kili looks up at him with wide, dark eyes, darker now for the little light filtering in from the shaded window. "Your shoes are in the kitchen,“ he says flatly and turns from Fili, pulling the covers up to his chin.

Fili, confused, stands there, staring at the outline of Kili’s back under the sheets. He just wants to get some sleep, not to be coldly dismissed by a guy he’s known for a grand total of seven hours.

"I’m sorry, I didn’t intend to slip out. I meant…I…” he sputters, at a loss for words. "I just - I couldn’t sleep.“ Kili lifts himself back up onto his elbows and looks at Fili.

"You snore. Loudly.” There, he’d said it. Now if Kili wants to dismiss him, he’d go.

Kili surprises him by laughing brightly.

"Shit, sorry!” Kili says, “I’m getting over a sinus infection, bet that’s what’s making me snore. I didn’t take my meds tonight. Probably because I was distracted by somebody!”

Fili lets out a little soft “Oh.”

“Come back,” Kili pats the recently vacated side of the bed. "I’ll go take my meds right now so you don’t have to find your way home in the middle of the night.“ Fili walks back around to the empty side of the bed, setting his clothes down on the floor as Kili gets up and heads into what Fili assumes is the bathroom. Fili hears a cabinet opening and closing and then the water of the faucet running as he settles back down into the pillows. Kili pads back over to his side of the bed and climbs in. 

They both lie on their backs, not touching. Fili closes his eyes and lets out a little sigh. He can almost feel Kili watching him, same as he had felt Kili’s gaze earlier in the evening at the bar. The bed dips a bit as Kili rearranges and when Fili opens his eyes and looks at the man, Kili has turned towards Fili and is smiling at him.

"Sorry about the snoring.”

“Sorry about the sneaking out,” he replies.

Kili reaches over and lightly drags a finger over Fili’s collarbone. "I know you wanted to sleep but I’m not so sleepy now.“

Fili chuckles. "I guess I’m not really now either.”

“Good!” Kili says as he slides over and begins nosing against Fili’s neck. Fili can still feel Kili grinning against his neck as he threads his fingers into the other man’s hair.

“You’ll let me sleep late in the morning though right?” Fili asks.

“Absolutely.”


	3. Ways to Bruise

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This a fill for prompt #143 - Where the hell did you get that?  
> Middle Earth, related.

“Where the hell did you get that?”

Kili looks at Fili through his fringe as he closes the door behind him. “I don’t want to talk about it, Fee.”

Fili sets down the knife he was sharpening and walks up to his brother, taking Kili’s face into his hands gently so he can examine the very large bruise spreading over Kili’s left eye and cheekbone. “Kee, what happened?”

Kili yanks his head back and brushes his brother’s hands off of him. “I said I don’t want to talk about it,” he growls as he stomps to their room and shuts the door loudly behind him.

Fili follows his brother but finds the bedroom door locked when he tries it. “Kili, let me in. At least let me look at it.”

He hears a muffled “No.” through the door as he leans against it.

“Kili, please,” he tries in a gentler tone.

“No! Leave me alone for once in your life!” comes the response. Fili recoils from the door at the sharp tone of Kili’s words and the way they wheedle under his skin.

“Fine, you can sulk all night for all I care!” he shouts back as he turns from their doorway and stalks back over to the kitchen table to resume sharpening his assorted weaponry.

As their normal supper time draws near and then passes without Kili emerging from their room, each drag of his whetstone over his blades only adds to Fili’s growing agitation. He’s not the one who put the bruise on Kili’s face so why on earth is his brother upset with him. He makes himself a sandwich from yesterday’s leftovers and after eating, moves to the fireplace to smoke a pipe in effort to calm his mood.

Several pipe-fulls later, Fili feels relaxed enough for sleep. He walks to their bedroom and tenses momentarily outside the door, afraid to try the handle in case Kili still has it locked against him. Putting his hand on the knob, he breathes a sigh of relief when it turns and he lets himself into their dark bedroom.

Kili is already in his bed, a curled-up lump under his blankets with his back to the room. Fili strips down to his underclothes and puts his things away, making as little noise as possible though he can tell from Kili’s breathing that his brother is not actually asleep. He takes in the shape of Kili’s body in the dim light and then glances at his own made bed. For a moment Fili wavers over his decision, still torn between his need to soothe his brother’s hurt and the still lingering irritation at Kili’s sulking. Remembering Kili’s earlier demand for Fili to leave him alone, Fili climbs into his own bed without his brother in it for the first time in years. 

 

Fili sleeps in his own bed and wakes to find Kili already gone for three mornings in a row. He spends his days in the forge, throwing himself into his work in an effort to push his brother from his thoughts. The two haven’t gone this long without talking since Kili broke Fili’s favorite wooden sword when they were children and the silent tension between them when they are in the same room of their house makes Fili feel like a boulder is growing inside him.

On the fourth night, Fili goes to bed alone but this is the first time Kili is not already in their bedroom. He gets into bed and spends several minutes twisting and turning before the several ales he’d had with his dinner and his nightly pipeweed do their work to soothe him into a fitful sleep. Sometime later Fili startles awake when he feels the bed dip beside him.

“Shhhh, go back to sleep,” Kili murmurs as he lays down against Fili’s back and puts an arm around him. They lay there together in silence for a while, Fili too afraid to say anything that might send Kili back to his own bed. When their breathing falls into rhythm, Fili squeezes the hand that’s around his middle and whispers a quiet “I’m sorry.”

The “S’not your fault,” Kili responds with is muffled from where his mouth presses against Fili’s shoulder.

“I’m sorry all the same,” Fili sighs. “Do you want to talk about it?” Fili shifts in his brother’s arms so he can face Kili.

“Someone said something stupid,” Kili whispers, eyes focused down at the bed between them, unable to look at his brother. “About how I’m nothing without you. That I follow you around like a pathetic puppy.”

“Oh Kee, that’s not true,” Fili replies as leans forward to brush his lips gently over Kili’s fading bruises. “You know that isn’t true.”

“I hit him. He hit me back obviously,” Kili looks at Fili, the bruise along his cheek made darker by the shadows of the room.

“Do you…” Fili’s throat tightens as he thinks of how he can possibly fix this short of breaking every finger on the offending person’s hand. “Do you want to spend less time together?”

Kili’s eyebrows draw down angrily, “Mahal no, Fee. How could you even ask that?”

“You’ve never locked the door before. You were gone every morning,” Fili answers in a whisper, searching Kili’s face for some hint of his feelings. “I thought maybe you wanted me to leave you alone.”

“I was angry. Not with you…just with everything, I needed some time is all,” Kili says. “And then when you didn’t come to bed, it made me feel worse.”

“I’m sorry.”

“I don’t want you to apologize,” Kili tells him. Fili almost says sorry again but stops himself by nosing against Kili’s hairline instead. “I don’t want to talk about it tonight. I just want to hold you.” Kili nudges him so that Fili turns back around in Kili’s arms.

“Whatever you want, Kee,” Fili murmurs. “We can do whatever you want.”

“I don’t want to wake up without you in my bed ever again, Fee,” Kili’s arm tightens around him.

“You won’t have to, I promise.”


	4. Locked Out

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This is a fill for prompt #22 - The only time I will ever do this.  
> Modern Universe, unrelated.

“Fili!”

Fili is not at all surprised to see his evidently drunk ex-boyfriend standing in his doorway at two in the morning, but he would admit to being a little unhappy about it. 

“No. Absolutely not. Go home,” Fili shakes his head and starts to close his door but the dark-haired man budges it back open with his shoulder.

“I’m locked out. Lost my keys at the bar apparently,” Kili says.

“I don’t care. Go stay with someone else. Whoever you went to the bar with,” Fili looks at him flatly.

“But they’re not you,” Kili pleads.

“Exactly.”

“Come on, don’t you still love me enough to let me crash for one night?” Kili says, turning his signature puppy dog eyes on as high as he can in his inebriated state.

A niggling thought in the back of Fili’s mind tells him that Kili probably wants him to admit that he still loves the man more than Kili wants a place to stay.

“Fine. But this is the only time I’ll do this,” Fili caves and steps back from the doorway. 

“Fantastic! You’re such a babe!” Kili bounds forward and opens his arms to embrace the blond.

“Nope,” Fili stops him with a hand to his chest. “No touching. And you’re on the couch, so don’t even think about my bed.” Fili watches the grin fade from Kili’s face with only a mild sense of smugness.

Fili walks down the hall to grab a blanket for Kili out of the closet and then throws it towards his ex, who is sitting on the couch pulling his boots off. 

“Good night,” Fili calls over his shoulder as he heads to his bedroom and shuts the door. He turns the lock just for good measure. Fili knows himself well enough that if Kili should try and sneak into this bed, he wouldn’t have the heart to turn down a cuddle so attractively presented. He’ll just have to make due with curling around his pillow for company instead. 

When Fili wakes up still wrapped around his trusty pillow cuddling partner, he lays staring at the ceiling for a few minutes, trying to gather the courage to go face his ex. It’s too early to be on guard for Kili’s charm, so Fili hopes the brunet’s hangover is large enough to damper him down to a manageable state.

Fili exits his bedroom and heads for the kitchen, already planning what coffee he wants as a reward for his good behavior with Kili last night. He notes Kili’s mussed up hair spreading out over the throw pillow and feels a momentary pang of regret for exiling Kili to the couch. It’s when he’s alternating between pulling down coffee and mugs from the cabinets and sneaking looks at Kili’s sleeping face that he notices the bright lanyard sticking out from the pockets of Kili’s discarded jeans on the floor. 

Fili knows that lanyard. He’d pulled it out of Kili’s tight jeans enough times over the course of their relationship to unlock Kili’s door when Kili had been too busy kissing everywhere he could reach. For a moment Fili doesn’t know whether to be irritated at Kili for being so drunk that he didn’t realize he actually had his keys on him or to be irritated at Kili for knowing he had his keys and coming here for god knows what reason. Fili sets a mug down extra hard on the counter at that just for the satisfaction of watching Kili startle awake.

Kili blinks heavily a few times and looks around the room before his eyes settle on Fili by the counter. Fili watches the corners of Kili’s mouth turn up into a soft smile before fixing him with a flat stare and saying “Your keys are in your pocket.”

“What?” Kili mumbles, sitting up and rubbing his eyes with the back of his hand. “Good morning to you too.”

“Your keys are in your pocket,” Fili repeats, walking over the crumpled jeans on the floor and picking them up, lanyard peeking out.

Kili looks up to Fili’s face and then to his jeans dangling in his hand. “Oh that, yeah.”

“Yeah? What does ‘yeah’ mean?”

Kili rubs at the bridge of his nose, a habit Fili distinctly associates with being caught out. “It means yeah, they were in my pocket.”

“So pretending to be locked out and showing up here in the middle of the night seemed like a good idea to you?” Fili asks.

Kili stands up, walking over to Fili and taking his pants from him so that he can start pulling them on. “I just wanted to see you okay? I’m sorry. I’ll go.”

Fili watches Kili as he hops around trying to put his boots on without sitting down and mulls over how Kili’s admission of wanting to see him makes him feel. Stupid and giddy simultaneously is as close as he can describe it.

Kili is at the door when he turns around and says “It was the biggest mistake of my life, Fili. I just want to be with you. I’m so sorry.”

“I know you are. I just don’t know if showing up drunk in the middle of night is the best way to tell me that,” Fili replies. 

“I still love you. Do you,” Kili pauses, eyes searching Fili’s own, “do you think maybe we can try again?”

Fili’s initial impulse at hearing Kili’s I love you is to throw himself into Kili’s arms but he restrains himself and says “I think maybe that’s a conversation we should be having when you’re not hungover and liable to vomit on me. You know how much I dislike that.” Fili gives Kili a small smile.

“So I can call you then?” Kili’s face lights up with hope.

“Yeah Kili, you can call me.”


	5. Don't Leave Me

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This is a fill from prompt #134 - Don't leave me.  
> Modern AU, non-related. Potentially from the same universe as Locked Out.

“Don’t leave me!” Kili calls out, reaching for the blond standing in the door frame. “Fili, please! Don’t leave me!”

Fili looks at his boyfriend flatly and then walks away.

“Fili! Come back!” Kili whines loudly.

He hears a loud “Babe, chill!” from the direction of the kitchen before the next wave of nausea causes him to bend back over the toilet bowl. Kili looks up again from his spot on the floor when he hears Fili’s footsteps returning to the bathroom. 

“Here you go, you baby,” Fili smiles at him and holds out a glass of water. “Drink it slowly.” Kili takes the glass from Fili and has a few small sips, relishing the coolness. He watches as Fili reaches over him to flush the toilet.

“I can’t believe you’d just abandon me like that,” Kili grumbles when he’s finished drinking.

“I was just getting you a glass of water,” the blond kneels down next to him and runs a hand down his back. “I hardly think that qualifies as abandonment.”

“Heartless, you’re heartless,” Kili mumbles as he lays his head down on his arms around the toilet bowl. “And cruel and mean and…and pretty.”

Fili sits down next to him and tries not to laugh at his boyfriend, really he thinks he should be more sympathetic but Kili’s dramatics are bordering on ridiculous. “I think you’ll find you did this to yourself, babe.”

“But I love whiskey sours. And they love me…usually,” Kili gives him a pathetic little smile and then giggles. “You’re heartless and I'm a bag of puke.”

“We make a wonderful pair, don’t we?” Fili reaches over and tucks a stray lock of hair back behind Kili’s ear. 

"Now are you going to yell at me for leaving again if I go get you a clean shirt?"


	6. Boots in Bed

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This is a fill for prompt #4 - Why are you tugging my boots off?  
> Middle Earth, related.

Kili struggled to wrestle the front door open and maintain the hold he had around his brother’s waist at the same time. Kili let out a sigh and leaned Fili up against the doorframe, which proved difficult as the blond kept reaching for him and tugging on his sleeves. 

Fili-free he managed to get the latch undone and toed the door open. Kili placed Fili’s arm over his shoulders again and steered his for once graceless brother to their shared bedroom. Kili hefted Fili over to his bed and dropped him there none too gently, smiling at the little huff Fili let out as his back hit the mattress. 

Kili peeled off his jacket and his boots, throwing them in the direction of his trunk before turning to his brother lying flat on his back on the bed with his eyes closed. Being careful of all the weaponry attached to Fili’s footwear, he raised one of Fili’s feet in his hands and began undoing the buckles. Fili tolerated this in silence until his brother started pulling the boot off of him, shaking his leg a little for good measure.

“Why are you tugging my boots off?” Fili craned his head up to look at his brother. “You know I like them on.”

“Oh, did you want to wake up to a bed full of dirt in the morning?” Kili asked with a grin. “Sore toes?” He gave Fili’s foot a little wiggle.

“No.”

“Then don’t complain, big brother. Besides, if you slept with them on you’d end up with a sliced leg or worse. Gods know you have enough knives in them to open a butchery,” Kili pulled the remaining boot off of Fili’s foot and let it drop to the floor.

“Going to take my pants off too, Kee?” Fili shot him a grin that he probably thought was sultry but really came off more lopsided thanks to all the ales he’d consumed at the pub.

“Yes brother, but not in the way you want,” Kili replied as he tugged on Fili’s pant legs until his brother lifted his hips up and the pants came off. Fili rolled onto his stomach and mumbled into the pillows.

“What was that, dear brother?” Kili asked as he moved to sit on the edge of the bed by Fili.

Fili rolled over a little and looked up at Kili, sticking his lip out. “S’not right,” he murmured.

“What’s not right?”

“I’m supposed to take care of you. Not t’other way around,” Fili frowned. 

“Well how about this, next time we go to the pub I’ll drink my weight in ale and you can drag me home and take my boots off. Sound good?” Kili asked as he ran a hand through Fili’s hair. 

When Kili stood up to take his own clothes off, Fili shot a hand out and grabbed his wrist. “Don’t leave.”

“I’m not, Fee,” Kili reassured him. “Go to sleep.” 

“Need cuddles first,” Fili tugged on his wrist.

“Well I’m happy to provide those. Even if you do smell like the tavern floor,” Kili said as he climbed into bed, maneuvering his increasingly pliable brother so that Kili’s chest was pressed up to Fili’s back. 

“S’nice,” Kili heard Fili slur. Kili hummed in agreement before drifting off to sleep.


	7. Healing

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This a fill for prompt #57 - "Please, you need to eat something."  
> Gladiator AU, related.

Fili stared at the wall opposite him, trying to focus his thoughts on anything but what happened in the arena that morning. Mostly he just thought of his brother. Hands much gentler than the ones that dragged him to the medicus fussed over him, arranging the bandages around his shoulder more neatly and then tucking a single stray lock of hair behind his ear.

“Here Fee.” Fili looked up at the sound of his brother’s voice, eyes glancing from Kili’s face to the hunk of break in his hand. He shook his head and went back to staring at the wall.

“Please, you need to eat something.” Kili gave the bread in his hand a little shake for emphasis. “Take the bread, Fili.”

“You can have it, brother.”

“No. You need to heal. And to heal you have to eat,” Kili said sternly.

“I wouldn’t need to heal if I’d done my duty,” Fili huffed, still looking at the wall in an attempt to ignore his brother’s searching eyes.

“Ah, so that’s what this is about?” Kili raised an eyebrow at his brother. “We’ve lost before, Fee. Every man here has. There is no shame in it.”

“There is for me,” Fili shook his head. “My hesitation could have meant your death.”

“Or yours.” Kili paused, “But you don’t give thought to that, do you?”

“My death means little to me.”

“And yet it would be everything to me,” Kili sighed as he sat down on the edge of the bed next to Fili. He reached up and smoothed his hand over Fili’s cheek. “Such deep thoughts today, brother. I’d rather see you have peace. And bread.”

The hand on his face turned his head gently until Fili was looking at Kili, the concern he saw in his brother’s dark eyes softened Fili’s mood.

“How can I find peace with my little brother pestering me so?” he gave a very small smile.

“You could heed his words,” Kili placed the bread in Fili’s hands. 

“I would have peace then?” Fili tore a bit of the bread off and popped it in his mouth. 

“A small measure.” Kili grinned. As Fili finished eating his small hunk of bread, Kili rechecked all his brother’s bandages, ghosting his hands over the fresh bruising still exposed. Noticing Fili’s still furrowed brow, Kili rested his hand on Fili’s upper thigh. “Ah, turn from dark thoughts brother. Give moment to brighter ones, perhaps.”

Fili’s eyes flicked between Kili’s hand on his bare leg and his eyes. “Brighter ones?” Fili asked, the corner of his mouth twitching upwards.

“Yes, brighter ones. Lay back now, brother,” Kili said. He helped shift his brother to lie down on the pallet and then moved to cover Fili with his own body.

“What of my healing?”

“I shall be very, very gentle, brother,” Kili whispered against the skin of Fili’s neck as he bent to press tender kisses there.

“Gratitude,” Fili murmured and set to unhooking his brother’s shoulder guard.


	8. Read to Me

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A non-Raffle fill but a prompt fill all the same for the prompt: "read to me."  
> BotFA Everybody Lives AU, related.

“Read this to me?”

Startled out of his concentration by his brother’s voice, Kili looks up from where he is sitting next to the fire, trimming feathers with a small knife. “What’s that, Fee?”

Fili is holding out a paper towards him. “Read this to me, please?”

“Of course, brother,” Kili says as he moves to get up from his seat, his knee giving him a twinge of pain as he straightens and puts weight on it.  He shuffles over to his brother and takes the paper.  “Do you want me to sit with you?” he asks.

Fili gives a shrug, eyes focused on the papers spread out before him on the table.  “Wherever you like.”

“Do you know what it is?” Kili asks as he moves back over to the fire and settles into one of their plush armchairs.  Fili gives a little hum that Kili interprets as a suggestion to begin reading. Glancing back at Fili, Kili wonders if his brother’s furrowed brow is caused by the contents of the re-port or at not being able to read it himself.  Kili begins reading it aloud, stealing looks at his brother’s form at the table occasionally.  The paper is only a report of topics meant for discussion at the up-coming meeting of the guild masters, so Kili knows Fili’s frustration is with himself.

When he reaches the end he gets up and lays the paper down on the table in front of Fili.  Walking behind him, Kili smooths his hands over his brother’s shoulders. “How do you feel?” he asks tentatively.

Fili’s hands clenching on the papers in front of him is answer enough for Kili.

“It’s alright Fili,” he murmurs, massaging at the rigidness he can feel across Fili’s shoulders.  “There’s no shame in needing a little help. It’s hasn’t even been that long.”  He feels Fili tense underneath his hands.  He knows Fili hates thinking about the battle and its aftermath, but he presses on, moving to stand beside his brother.  He puts a finger under Fili’s chin, lifting his face so Fili will be forced to look at him with his one good eye.

“Would you have me go without my crutches or walking sticks?” Kili asks, keeping his face calm.

“No!  Of course not, Kili.  You need those to heal.” Fili bristles, jerking his head back a little to evade Kili’s hand, but Kili takes Fili’s face in both his hands, ghosting a finger over the scarring that draws across Fili’s cheek from his left eye.

“And you need to rest.” Kili counters. “And to not lay so much blame upon yourself.  Give it time.”

“What if it doesn’t get better?” Fili whispers quietly.

“It will.  You said the headaches are lessening each day,” Kili reassures him.  “And if it doesn’t, then I shall just have to read to you.  Do you hate the sound of my voice that much, brother?"

“No,” Fili replies. “I love your voice.”

“Then what are you worrying about?” Kili bends down and presses a kiss to Fili’s forehead.  “Come to bed. You’ve spent enough attention on stately business for the day. You have other matters to at-tend to now.”

“Have I?” Fili asks as he gets up from his seat and starts following Kili towards their bed chamber.

“Yes.  There is the matter of you wearing too much clothing.” Kili grins at him from over his shoulder.

“Oh, I shall address that right now then.”


End file.
